Hotels in Tokyo

Tokyo is enormous but runs like clockwork: trains to the minute, orderly queues, and food at every price from £4 ramen counters to sushi worth planning a trip around. It is really a cluster of centres — neon Shinjuku, youthful Shibuya, old-town Asakusa around Senso-ji, calmer pockets like Yanaka — stitched together by the Yamanote loop line.

English signage is decent on transport and patchier elsewhere, and addresses baffle everyone, but people are unfailingly helpful. Stay in Shinjuku or Shibuya for late-night energy and easy transport, near Tokyo Station if you are day-tripping by shinkansen, or in Asakusa for lower prices and an older, quieter Tokyo — accepting a longer ride out to the western districts.